Standardised welfare auditing of broiler chicken flocks using validated outcome measures provides consistent, comparable welfare data that drives improvement at flock and industry level.
Standardised broiler welfare auditing has transformed the industry's ability to identify and respond to welfare problems at scale. Slaughter plant welfare monitoring — recording footpad dermatitis, hock burn, carcass lesions, and DOA rates — provides population-level welfare data from every flock processed, complementing farm-level observation. The combination of farm and slaughter data enables identification of high-welfare-cost flocks, triggers for investigation, and trend monitoring that voluntary self-reporting cannot provide.